Heartbreak and TeddyBears
by theladyinblue
Summary: After Joanne breaks her heart, Maureen is forced to mature and make a life changing decison. mentions of MoJo
1. HeartBreak

Heartbreak and Teddy bears

By Theladyinblue

Note: RENT does not belong to me. I also borrowed the chair allusion from the movie "Juno".

All original characters belong to me though.

It all began with a chair.

Joanne had been working late that night as she had been every night that month. The office was very quiet since it was late and everyone else had left hours ago. All Joanne could hear was the sound of the computer keys clicking as she typed away on her computer and the radio playing at her secretary's desk. She looked up to see her secretary walking into her office with a smile on her face. She did not stop her from climbing on her lap and kissing her neck.

"Melissa, we shouldn't, Maureen.." Joanne was cut off by Melissa's lips on hers.

"you need a break Jo, and besides, what Maureen does not know won't kill her" said Melissa as she started unbuttoning Joanne's blouse. Maureen was all but forgotten as clothes came off and hands and lips roamed. In all the excitement, neither Joanne nor Melissa heard knocking on the door.

Maureen had decided to come surprise Joanne at the office and was surprised to find a closed door since Joanne always had her office door open when she worked late. After knocking a few more times, Maureen shrugged and decided to try and see if the door was unlocked. When she opened the door, she was shocked by what she saw. Joanne and her secretary, half naked and moaning. Maureen gasped and turned to run out of there as fast as she could. She could not believe this. Joanne, who had always been so hard on Maureen for just flirting with other women, was practically having sex with her secretary. Maureen ran for the elevator and managed to make it on before Joanne could catch up to her. As soon as the elevator door closed, Maureen collapsed to the floor and started crying. She could not believe that this was happening. Things had been going so well for her and Joanne. They had stopped fighting and they had even started the process of adopting a little girl from China together to make them truly a family. But now as Maureen sat weeping on the floor of the elevator, all those dreams were going up in smoke.

* * *

When Collins opened his door to find Maureen standing there with her face all red and suitcases at her side, he did not say another word. He invited her in and told Angel to put some tea on. Maureen just sat on the couch with Collin's arms wrapped around her and cried her eyes out. Collins wanted to know what had happened to make the diva this upset but for now he was just going to let her cry it out. Angel walked in with the tea and sat down on the other side of Maureen.

"What happen honey" asked Angel while rubbing Maureen's back.

"Joanne cheated. I walked in and found her with her secretary. "Maureen managed to say between sobs.

Collins and Angel both looked shocked and they did their best to comfort Maureen. After they had gotten Maureen calmed down and settled in their sofa bed, Collins and Angel went down to their bedroom to talk.

" you think she's telling the truth?' Angel asked Collins.

" I think she is" said Collins. "I ain't never seen her this upset before. That did not look like one of her drama queen acts to me"

Suddenly, the phone rang and Angel ran to get it since they had just managed to get Maureen to fall asleep and they did not want to start over again. Sure enough, it was a very tearful Joanne calling to see if Maureen was there.

"she's here but she's sleeping and even if she wasn't , she probably would not want to talk to you right now. You really hurt her, chica" said Angel.

Collins took the phone from her after that and spoke to Joanne.

"I've never seen Maureen as upset as she was tonight. That girl is like a sister to me and I don't want to see her hurt anymore. This is why I don't want you calling here and asking for her anymore. You've hurt her enough Joanne, please don't cause her any more pain" and with that Collins hung up the phone. Just then, they heard Maureen crying again in the living room. Angel sighed as she walked out to comfort Maureen. _This was going to be a very long night. _

**to be continued....**

**liked it, hated it? let me know! please review. and thanks for reading. **


	2. Moving out and Moving on

Moving out and moving on

A few days later, Maureen finally began to emerge from the black hole she had been in since Joanne had revealed her true colors. It had taken some time and some free therapy from Collins and Angel but Maureen had finally started picking up the pieces of her life and starting over. Part of starting over meant getting her own apartment so Maureen had spent her whole Saturday afternoon walking the streets of New York City, trying to find a decent apartment in her price range that was in a good neighborhood. After spending four hours apartment hunting, Maureen decided to call it a day and head back to Collin's and Angel's place.

"No luck chica?" Asked Angel when Maureen walked in

"Nope, I saw five different places and all of them were way too expensive. And last one was a total dump" said Maureen.

Maureen fell onto the couch still wearing her leather coat and boots. At this point, she was too exhausted to care about taking them off.

" I might know of a place" said Angel

Maureen's head shot up from the couch when she heard this.

"Why the hell didn't you say anything Angel?"

"it is not even officially for rent yet. The doorman clued me in on it when I went to get the mail this morning" said Angel

As it turned out, apartment 16J in Collin's and Angel's building had just been vacated and remodeled. Maureen and Angel wasted no time in going to look at the new place. Maureen loved it from the moment she saw it. The apartment had a large sunny living room with a small dining area on the side. It also had a small but functional walk in kitchen and two bedrooms. After spending a while checking out the apartment, Maureen knew that this was it and that she was home.

Soon, Maureen had gotten moved in and settled into her new apartment. Everything was falling into place for the diva. Everything except that one important piece.

* * *

She had not looked at the file from the adoption agency since the break-up from Joanne. But she thought of that little girl in the photo from the adoption agency more than once as she passed by the second empty bedroom. Finally, Maureen decided that she could not put things off any more and that she had to talk to Joanne about the adoption.

She chose a Saturday morning when she happened to have off from her job at the record store. Maureen was very nervous as she waited for Joanne to arrive. She braced herself for the inevitable tears and pleading but Joanne was remarkably calm and quiet when she arrived. After they had taken their seats at the dining room table, Maureen took out the file from the adoption agency and began to talk.

" Joanne, I think you know why I called you here today. We can't let this go any further. It 's not about us any more……it's about this little girl who is waiting for a family. We either have to figure something out or let her go to another family."

" Maureen" said Joanne " I can't be a mother. I don't have the time or the energy for it. I'm sorry Maureen but the only reason I even decided to go through with this was because I thought this was just going to be one of those kicks you like to go on. Like when you said we should get a dog and then you got to take care of my brother's dog for a weekend and decided it was too much work. I thought that once you saw how much work being a mom is, you'd get the adoption idea out of your head. I thought this whole kid thing was a joke."

Any shred of respect that Maureen had left for Joanne had just gone out the window with those comments. She wanted to throw Joanne out right there and then but she had to stay calm and show Joanne that she had grown up and was not that crazy, flighty immature person that Joanne thought she was. After Joanne had finally gone on her way, Maureen went to sit on her couch and look at the file again. Finally after a while of looking at the little girl's picture, she picked up the phone and started dialing the number for the adoption agency.

"This is Judy from International Adoptions. How may I help you?"

Hi Judy, this is Maureen Johnson. I'm calling about the adoption paperwork that was filed about a year ago. "

Maureen was cut off by Judy. "Maureen, if this is about Joanne pulling out of the adoption, she already called me and got her name removed from the paperwork. However, if you are still interested in proceeding with a single parent adoption, I'd be happy to help you"

Maureen did not know what to say so she just thanked Judy and hung up. A single parent adoption?

Could she really do this on her own?

to be continued...

liked it? hated it? please review!!

thanks for the reviews on Chapter one.


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